Элоиз Баркер (Eloise Barker)

Последнее обновление: апрель 2019 г.

Thanks to Disney Dining Plans, you can make budgeting for all your holiday meals simple. These great-value plans let you eat across a wide selection of resort and theme park restaurants when you stay at a Disney Resort Hotel. But which plan should you choose? And where should you go for the best food at Disney? Decode the Disney Dining Plans with our handy guide.

What’s the best Disney Dining Plan to choose?

Disney Quick-Service Dining Plan

The lowdown: Perfect if your family prefers casual dining, this plan includes two quick service meals at up to 50 locations.

Top tip: Disney are doing their bit for healthier kids’ meals – look out for the green tick that denotes the ‘Mickey Check’.

The lowdown: This plan includes one quick service and one waiter service meal per day, so you can choose whether to spend more time on lunch or dinner. You can also choose to dine in one of Disney's Signature Restaurants, which require you to redeem two waiter service meals per person. This plan is available at up to 100 locations.

Top tip: Book table service meals ahead of your Disney holiday – you can book up to 180 days in advance using the Disney Reservation Center.

The lowdown: This plan offers the greatest variety and choice throughout your stay. You can choose three quick-service or three waiter service meals every day, at up to 100 locations. If you’d really rather only have waiter service meals, upgrade to this plan. If you’d really rather only have waiter service meals, upgrade to this plan.

Top tip: Remember to budget for tipping the staff on what you would have paid. A gratutity will usually be added to your bill.

Where: When you stay at a Walt Disney World Resort, you can upgrade to the Disney Deluxe Dining Plan for an additional fee.

Waiter service

Choose a waiter service meal for your lunch or dinner with the Disney Dining Plan.£2328 pp

Refreshing

Where to go for waiter service at Walt Disney World Resort

’Ohana

Time to learn a new word: churrascaria. Beloved Hawaiian-inspired restaurant ’Ohana is known for it: all you can eat chicken, shrimp and steak served on gigantic skewers. This marching meat forest comes straight to your table. Eat ‘all you care to enjoy’, plus look out for character breakfasts with Lilo and Stitch, and the occasional fire show.

The best bit: Try the pineapple and coconut bread to start but go easy – there’s a whole buffet to come.

How to get it: This restaurant is available on the Disney DiningPlan and Disney Deluxe DiningPlan as a table service meal.

The Hollywood Brown Derby

The original Brown Derby restaurant opened in LA in the 1920s, and it was actually shaped like a derby hat (bowler hat if you’re British). This Disney outpost brings a bit of that Hollywood glamour to Disney’s Hollywood Studios – with all of its quirks, too. So, hang up your hat (if you have one), slide into a leather booth and settle in for a couple of hours – it will take you a good few minutes just to read through the exciting cocktail menu.

The best bit: The restaurant is famous for its Cobb salad, featuring finely minced ingredients – but word has got around about its margarita flights and its grapefruit cake, too – for those who want their dessert a little less sweet, and a little more sophisticated.

Where:Disney’s Hollywood Studios

How to get it: As a waiter service restaurant, tables are available on the Disney DiningPlan and Disney Deluxe DiningPlan. The Hollywood Brown Derby is one of Disney’s Signature Restaurants, so you’ll need to use two table service entitlements per person to eat here.

Be Our Guest Restaurant

Step into the Beast’s chandeliered castle for one of the most beloved, standout experiences at Disney. Be Our Guest Restaurant is one of the biggest of the Magic Kingdom Park restaurants. In this family-friendly eatery the suits of armour talk – but the gargoyles at the entrance prefer to grimace. If you choose a table in the West Wing, prepare for its stormy setting and lots of other diners (and maybe even the Beast himself) poking their head in to look at the room.

The best bit: The filet mignon is one of the best in the resort.

Where: Set in the Beast’s castle, across a moat, up a mountain, in a special corner of Fantasyland in the heart of Magic Kingdom Park.

How to get it:Be Our Guest Restaurant is available on all three Disney DiningPlans for different meals. You can get table service at lunch and dinner or a quick-service lunch. You’ll wait across the bridge for your table to be ready.

The BOATHOUSE

The BOATHOUSE in Disney Springs has got a perfect waterside setting. Sit outside on balmy Florida nights and look out at the lights across the lake.

The best bit: The famous baked Alaska, with its graham cracker crust and toasted marshmallows, is roughly the size of a glacier and would serve four hungry mountaineers.

Where: You’ll find The BOATHOUSE in an area of Disney Springs known as The Landing, which is right by the water.

How to get it: Tables are available on the Disney DiningPlan and Disney Deluxe DiningPlan. This is one of Disney’s Signature Restaurants, so you’ll need to use two table service meals per person to eat here.

The Captain’s Table

At The BOATHOUSE, pick from the raw bar, the sea and the shore – whatever floats your boat. £2701 pp

Among the Epcot restaurants, Coral Reef is good value – and a little different. Tables are next to the glass wall of Epcot’s massive aquarium, so you can dine ‘under the sea’. The Seas aquarium is a massive ecosystem, home to 4,000 creatures – including sea turtles (and the restaurant provides tables with a sea life guide). If you don’t get a table near enough to Nemo for your liking (not all are near the glass), then riding the Finding Nemo ride next door gives you another view of the tank.

The best bit: Is that…. Is that a scuba diver? Not on your plate, silly – swimming past the window. Visitors can dive in the tank for an extra fee.

Where: Hidden at the back of Future World, Epcot.

How to get it: This restaurant is available on the Disney DiningPlan and Disney Deluxe DiningPlan as a table service meal.

Tiffins Restaurant

‘Tiffin’ means lunch – but you can have dinner, lunch or both at this signature restaurant, right in the heart of Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park. Tiffins Restaurant is full of props and artwork that inspired the design of the park, including giant animal lanterns and amazing carvings. A sprinkling of exotic ingredients – tamarind, guava and chermoula – turns your usual restaurant dishes into something new and exciting.

The best bit: You can choose fancy entrees – like lobster and wagyu beef surf and turf – or you can just get the chicken waffle.

Where:Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park

How to get it: Eating at Tiffins Restaurant is available on the Disney DiningPlan and Disney Deluxe DiningPlan. The is one of Disney’s Signature Restaurants, so you’ll need to use two table service entitlements per person to eat here.

Where to have a character breakfast at Walt Disney World Resort

Chef Mickey’s

Centred around the sleek monorail station, Disney’s Contemporary Resort looks as futuristic as Epcot's Future World. Chef Mickey’s restaurant brings a bit of fun to the main lobby. At the breakfast buffet, there are the famous Mickey Waffles, but the dishiest main event is a visit from Mickey Mouse himself at the character breakfast. At other meals, there’s also a carvery, key lime tart, and build-your-own sundae.

The best bit: Kids will like watching the monorail glide away stealthily above the buffet table. Meet Mickey in the morning and then take that monorail straight into the Magic Kingdom Park.

How to get it: Character dining at this restaurant is available on the Disney DiningPlan and Disney Deluxe DiningPlan. To meet Mickey, book into Chef Mickey’s Fun Time Buffet. You can also get brunch and dinner at Chef Mickey’s – you’ll need one dining token in each case.

The Crystal Palace

Breakfast might not seem like an event when you’re keen to get on with a day in the parks – but you shouldn’t miss out on a character breakfast… You can find Disney characters cropping up everywhere over cereal. In the bright and airy dining hall of this classy conservatory, join in the ‘friendship day celebrayshuns’ at Pooh Corner with Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, Tigger and friends. Is that a Heffalump hiding in the greenery?

The best bit: A parade for little ones to celebrate friendship – joined by their new best buddy, Tigger.

Where: Magic Kingdom Park.

How to get it: Character dining at this restaurant is available on the Disney DiningPlan and Disney Deluxe DiningPlan. Book in for A Buffet with Character.

Cape May Café

Disney’s Beach Club Resort has loads of great food (see also, the Beaches and Cream Soda Shop, below) – but be sure to book in for the resort’s Cape May Café character breakfast. Every day, before they head out to the pool, Minnie and friends pay a visit to the café, putting a smile on everyone’s face. Load your plates high with Mickey waffles and enjoy.

The best bit: All the characters come wearing their brightest beach gear – bucket hats, board shorts and very tropical shirts.

How to get it: You’ll need one table service credit for ‘Minnie’s Beach Bash Breakfast’ – and booking ahead is highly recommende

Be Our Guest Restaurant at Magic Kingdom Park.

Where to eat healthy at Walt Disney World Resort

Satu'li Canteen

Did you know they had chicken on Pandora? This quick-service canteen serves healthy, colourful meals inspired by the bountiful Avatar forests. Grab yourself a bowl.

The best bit: There are plenty of Mickey Check meals here for kids.

Where: Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park

How to get it:Satu'li Canteen is available on all three Disney Dining Plans as a quick-service meal. You can also order ahead on your mobile.

Katsura Grill

Enjoy quick, healthy Japanese food in Epcot, in the shadow of the pagoda. Enjoy sushi, noodles, or a light miso soup – then a green tea cheesecake for afters.

The best bit: Taiko drummers liven up proceedings with outdoor performances from the main stage of the pavilion’s main pagoda.

Where: Find it in the Japan Pavilion in the World Showcase at Epcot.

How to get it: This restaurant is available on all three Disney Dining Plans as a quick-service meal.

Tangierine Café

At Tangierine Café there’s a small, select menu with sharwarma (grilled, shaved meat), olives and couscous. Grab a quick bite under the horseshoe arches and stay, as Aladdin would say, ‘one jump ahead of the bread line’.

The best bit: You can meet Princess Jasmine in the nearby Moroccan marketplace.

Where: Head on over to the Moroccan Pavilion in the World Showcase at Epcot.

How to get it: This restaurant is available on all three Disney Dining Plans as a quick-service meal.

Iconic eats

Best places for snacks at Walt Disney World Resort

Main Street Confectionery

If you have snack tokens left over at the end of your holiday, head to Main Street Confectionery and pick up some edible souvenirs for your less-lucky relatives back home. Just make sure you don’t eat them between the parks and the plane trip back.

The best bit: The Mickey Mouse red velvet cake pop is one of the most delicious mouse-shaped snacks in the parks.

Where: Unmissable on Main Street, U.S.A., just in the entrance to the Magic Kingdom Park.

How to get it: Every Disney DiningPlan offers two Snack credits a day per person. Use the My Disney Experience app or refer to your printed receipt at each restaurant to find out what you have left over to spend at the end of your stay.

Epcot Food and Wine Festival

Epcot’s popular fall festival takes over the pavilions around the lake at the World Showcase. Normally you’d pay for the dishes you’ll try, but on your Disney DiningPlan you can also use your snack credits on some delicacies, and that way you can try some really exciting food from the stands. That’s not all that’s going on. The Eat to the Beat concert series brings gentle popular bands to the evenings, there are live cooking demonstrations, plus the chance to buy a Mickey mug or some monster-shaped oven mitts in the shops.

The best bit: Look out for lobster rolls.

Where: The big food festival is held at Epcot. Some hotels host extra events.

How to get it:Disney DiningPlan offers two snack credits a day per person, which you’ll be able to use at the stalls. The Epcot festival is from the end of August to November.